Blood cell ‘debris’ could snare sports cheats

By Andy Coghlan

ATHLETES who cheat by injecting themselves with stored supplies of their own blood might soon be caught out. A telltale trail of debris could give the game away.

Most “blood dopers” cheat by injecting themselves with the blood-boosting hormone erythropoietin, but there have been tests to detect EPO since 2000. Another way to dope blood is to periodically extract some of your own, store it and re-inject it before competitions.

Some professional cyclists are alleged to have done this as part of a doping scandal that emerged in Spain in 2006, dubbed Operación Puerto. At least one cyclist is still fighting to clear his name.

Re-injecting stored blood boosts the oxygen supply to muscles. The practice has so far eluded detection but now there might be a way catch out the cheats.

During storage, red blood cells start to fall apart, generating debris such as the fragments of cell membranes. Olaf Schumacher of the University of Freiburg in Germany and his colleagues have shown that when stored blood is re-injected, the recipient’s white blood cells prepare to get rid of this sudden tide of debris. They say that these changes are detectable. “It’s like someone dumping rubbish in your blood,” he says. “When all the rubbish comes at once, there’s lots of activity.”

It’s like someone dumping rubbish in your blood. When it comes at once, there’s lots of activity

Schumacher’s team took blood from six non-athletes, stored it for 35 days then re-infused it, taking further blood samples three and four days afterwards. When they analysed the white blood cells in these samples, genes needed for identifying and disposing of ailing and damaged ...

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